Project Outcomes | Lessons Learned

Chinese Language Field Initiative (CLFI)

Funded with support of the Henry Luce Foundation between 2001 and 2004, the Chinese Language Field Initiative (CLFI) was a program of field-wide discussion and study to strengthen Chinese language instruction in the United States. The Initiative was led by the Chinese Language Teachers Association (CLTA) and the Chinese Language Association of Secondary-Elementary Schools (CLASS), with administrative support from the National Council of Organizations of Less Commonly Taught Languages (NCOLCTL) and consultative expertise by the NFLC.

The goal of CFLI was to strengthen the architecture of the Chinese language field at the post-secondary level, and ultimately in all instructional settings. The Initiative produced the following three major proposed outcomes:

• A survey of several hundred Chinese language program administrators and teachers at all instructional levels throughout the United States regarding the strengths and needs of the Chinese language field
• The production of a strategic planning document, based in part upon the results of the aforementioned survey
• The establishment of ChineseNet, part of the NFLC's Foreign Language Bibliographical Database, to serve as a national collaborative mechanism for field and program development through resource sharing

Project Outcomes

• The national survey was not as complete as had been hoped, with a cumulative final return rate of 34.3% (400 out of a total of 1,163 confirmed addressees), ranging from 21.0% for K-12 administrators to 47.1% for K-12 teachers. However, subsequent discussions by the PI with individuals from various organizations and centers that have also conducted comprehensive field surveys revealed that the 34.3% percentage is in fact quite typical, particularly for surveys for which no financial compensation is provided to the respondents. Moreover, what was collected was indeed critical, and may well serve as a foundation for future, more comprehensive research.
• Although a final strategic planning document was not produced, the ongoing development of the AP Chinese Course and Examination has become a de facto Chinese language field strategic planning mechanism. The AP truly will impact Chinese language education in all institutional settings – K-12, college/university and heritage – with significant articulation implications for both curricula and assessment. Equally important, a large number of Initiative participants have been playing a significant role in the development of the AP.
• ChineseNet was indeed created, with an initial database of over 80 bibliographic entries. Additionally, in the summer of 2005, CLASS was awarded a grant (through the NFLC) to continue the development of ChineseNet 1.0 resource reviews, with a particular focus on pre-collegiate Chinese language learning textbooks and materials – the area for which the CLFI Task Force was arguably least successful in identifying materials. In any event, the mechanism does now exist, and the NFLC is committed to maintaining the technological end of it, with responsibility for content development in the hands of the Chinese language field. This is clearly the greatest success from among the three priority areas for the Initiative.
• Albeit not originally proposed as an outcome from the Initiative, there was at least, in unfunded conceptual form, the creation of the Chinese Language Field Coalition (CLFC), a consortium composed of CLTA, CLASS, the National Council of Associations of Chinese Language Schools (NCACLS), and the Chinese School Association in the United States, with an agenda initially focusing on support of the establishment of a Advanced Placement (AP) Chinese Curriculum and Test through the College Board.

Lessons Learned

Perhaps the most important lesson of the Chinese Language Field Initiative is that it was wrong to assert an overarching goal of only "strengthening the architecture of the Chinese language field at the post-secondary level," as we stated in our original proposal. No language field can develop fully if it focuses too much on what happens at the top end – particularly a field in which over 70% of the students are enrolled in pre-collegiate institutions (either K-12 or heritage), as is the case for Chinese. While the Initiative was lucky to have a truly enlightened (i.e., to the importance of supporting and developing pre-collegiate Chinese language programs) group of post-secondary educators, they remain largely the exception to the rule in our profession. One hopes that their numbers may expand to adequately respond to the inevitable impending (and potentially explosive) growth of the Chinese language educational pre-collegiate "pipeline" that the AP signals. Perhaps then, the transition from CLFI to CLFC will become a reality.

For more information contact Scott McGinnis.